Ministry of Justice: Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD)
Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) is a government data-linking programme which aims to improve the connectedness of government data in England and Wales.
Applies to England and Wales
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The BOLD programme
Government is responsible for supporting people with multiple complex needs such as those who are homeless, victims of crime and offenders. Often this is difficult because information about the challenges those individuals face is held across different government departments and administrations and not frequently shared.
The Ministry of Justice led BOLD programme has been created to demonstrate how people with complex needs can be better supported by linking and improving the government data held on them in a safe and secure way. BOLD will initially focus on reducing homelessness, supporting victims of crime, reducing substance misuse and reducing reoffending.
Data used in the programme
The programme will use strictly de-identified data from the Ministry of Justice, Department of Health and Social Care, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Public Heath Wales and the Welsh Government in order to show how linking it can improve the support provided for those with complex needs. Our partnership and programme builds on learning from other initiatives such as Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK. BOLD will run until the end of 2024 and its findings used to deliver changes to how government supports those in need.
BOLD consists of 4 data and analysis pilot projects, each aiming to provide better data and evidence to support policy and the design of more effective services to people with multiple complex needs.
Reducing homelessness
We know that those who are homeless or sleeping rough often have a variety of support needs, most commonly mental and physical-health needs, drug or alcohol dependency and offending histories. The Homelessness Pilot project aims to better understand why some people repeatedly become homeless, which services are most effective in preventing prison leavers from becoming homeless (and thereby decreasing their chances of reoffending), and what role drug treatment services can play in preventing homelessness.
Supporting victims of crime
36% of Victims report dissatisfaction with the way the Criminal Justice System (CJS) handled their case, with 32% of reported criminal cases dropped due to victims disengaging from an investigation or prosecution, with this figure having risen every year since 2014. The Victim Pathways Pilot project aims to better understand how government and third sector services can most effectively support victims of crime to cope and recover and to confidently seek justice. The ultimate goal is to use this evidence to improve victims’ experience of the criminal justice system and support them to achieve a positive justice outcome.
Reducing substance misuse
The illicit drugs trade costs society over £19 billion a year and drug deaths remain high. Those without stable accommodation or employment support can struggle to access and stay in treatment. The Substance Misuse Pilot project aims to better understand what factors drive successful rehabilitations from addiction for particular groups, such as prison leavers or rough sleepers. The ultimate goal is to use data and evidence to improve life outcomes for people receiving substance abuse treatment, through improving the assessment of additional needs where individuals come into contact with any government service. As part of this pilot, Welsh Government aim to ensure that challenges unique to Wales are also addressed.
The pilot has now published the ‘Pathways between probation and addiction treatment in England’ report, linking community sentence treatment requirements (alcohol and drug rehabilitation) with treatment services. This report is a joint experimental statistics publication from the Ministry of Justice and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, which is part of the Department of Health and Social Care. The report focuses on offenders sentenced to an alcohol treatment requirement or a drug rehabilitation requirement. It aimed to assess if the pathways between probation and specialist alcohol and drug treatment services are operating effectively, and to describe the treatment outcomes.
The pilot has supported the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH), based at the University of Manchester, to investigate the factors associated with suicide by people accessing drug and alcohol treatment services. Their report Suicide by people in contact with drug and alcohol services: a national study 2021 to 2022 is now available. The pilot team was responsible for linking data on suicides with the English National Drug Treatment Monitoring System. The team also determined a control group who had been in contact with drug and alcohol services in the previous year but did not die. NCISH sought serious incident reports into the deaths conducted by the drug and alcohol treatment services at the time of the suicide. Similar work was conducted by Digital Health and Care Wales to link with the Welsh National Database for Substance Misuse. Taken together, the report found that 8% of the 5,720 deaths by suicide registered in England and Wales between 1st October 2021 and 30th September 2022 had accessed drug or alcohol treatment in the 12 months prior to death. In England, this represents 119.2 deaths registered per 100,000 in treatment, more than 10 times that of the general population (10.1 per 100,000). The study also reports clinical risk factors that may inform suicide prevention and strategies and makes recommendations for improving safety for people under the care of treatment services.
There is now a second report published by the pilot looking into whether there is an association between drug or alcohol dependence and the risk of dying by or committing homicide Drug and alcohol treatment for victims and suspects of homicide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) This report contains official statistics under development which provide for the first time, linking the Homicide Index dataset with specialist addiction treatment services database (NDTMS) of the Homicide Office and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. The data linkage explores the use of substance misuse services by victims and suspects of homicide. We identified 3% of victims and 11% of suspects who were in the homicide index as having a treatment record in NDTMS.
Reducing reoffending
We know that reoffending costs society approximately £18 billion a year. We know, however, that an ex-offender’s likelihood of reoffending is significantly decreased if they have a home, a job and access to healthcare. We are tackling the causes of reoffending in order to keep our communities safe, and the Prison Strategy White Paper, published in December 2021, sets out the government’s ambitions to tackle the root causes of reoffending. The Reducing Reoffending Pilot project will support these ambitions by linking data to better understand the impact of specific interventions to help offenders turn their backs on crime, particularly in terms of their linked outcomes (employment, health, housing and family).
Privacy is at the heart of BOLD’s design and ethos
BOLD is about using data and evidence to design better services for people, but given the volume, sensitivity and complexity of the data collected by government, BOLD takes its responsibilities to proportionately and ethically handle this data very seriously, and commits itself to robust ethical standards. Find more information on how BOLD uses and keeps data safe, and how we are engaging the public to build trust in the document at the top of this page.
Engaging the public
Public trust and engagement are critical for BOLD, and we committed to undertake extensive public engagement with those individuals whose data are being shared, and with the wider public.
BOLD partnered with the Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation (CDEI), and the research company Britain Thinks, to undertake extensive engagement with affected groups, trusted intermediaries, and the general public. This included focus groups with the four cohorts of people BOLD is focused on (Victims, Offenders, Substance Misusers, and those experiencing Homelessness). The results of this exercise, and what we have learnt from listening to the public, will tangibly inform the design of the BOLD programme and has been published by the CDEI.
Further information, including analytical publications will be published on this page as they become available. A list of the datasets that BOLD is currently using can be found in the document at the top of this page, and will be regularly updated as the programme progresses.
For further information, contact [email protected]
Updates to this page
Published 23 June 2022Last updated 23 July 2024 + show all updates
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Updated section 'Data used in the programme' in document 'Ministry of Justice: Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) '.
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Paragraph about second report of pilot on drug and alcohol treatment for victims and suspects of homicide added under reducing substance misuse heading.
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Update to Reducing substance misuse section
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Privacy Notice updated
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Privacy notice updated.
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A paragraph has been added about the publication of the ’Pathways between probation and addiction treatment in England’ report.
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A paragraph has been added about BOLD partnering with the Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation (CDEI).
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Documents updated.
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First published.